Open Research Challenge¶
Easing the Switch to a New Platform in the RoboCup Standard Platform League
Objective¶
The RoboCup Standard Platform League has used the robot NAO by Aldebaran Robotics for more than 17 years. However, after so many successful years, we consider this platform as exhausted regarding the RoboCup Federation's way towards its 2050 goal, especially with regard to any motion-related research and development. Above all, the providing company does not exist anymore. By switching to a way more powerful platform such as the Booster T1, a much wider range of complex motions becomes possible, allowing sophisticated ball handling and passing in one-on-one situations or even kicks that lift the ball from the ground. Such motions would increase a robot's action space significantly and, on the medium term, might lead to even more combination play than in today's SPL.
This is why we demonstrate our SPL software running on a Booster T1 robot.
Expected Impact¶
Since 2008, the team B-Human has released its code base after each RoboCup. Over the years, at least 35 teams have integrated parts of our code into their systems or based their entire soccer software on it. Our upcoming 2025 code release will be compatible with the robot T1 by Booster Robotics, similar to the NAO. Therefore, if the league switches to a new platform, teams can find solutions to multiple problems in our code base, facilitating a smoother transition. Some of our key contributions are:
- Developing for the T1 from Windows, macOS, and Linux is fully supported.
- Our simulator SimRobot includes scenes featuring the T1.
- SimRobot can replay log files recorded by the T1 and connect to a T1 via the network.
- We have developed both forward and inverse kinematics for the T1, which are more complex to define compared to the NAO.
- The vast majority of our NAO modules has been adapted to and/or successfully evaluated on the T1, such as our walk implementation.
Implementation Feasibility¶
Instead of the T1, its smaller sibling, the K1, is more likely to become the new standard platform in our league. The K1 was just released, and we currently do not have one. It is evident that the K1 is not just a smaller version of the T1. While the challenges in computing the inverse kinematics for the legs are similar, they are not identical. The camera used in the K1 is different from that of the T1. However, many aspects remain the same between the two robots. For instance, the software interface to the robot is identical. We intentionally do not run custom software on the Intel-based motion PC of the T1 because the K1 does not have it anymore. As soon as we gain access to the K1, we will adapt our software to it and update our code release accordingly.
State at the Code Release¶
The Booster Robotics T1 is supported as demonstrated at the RoboCup 2025. The software now also supports the Booster K1, except for non-RealSense cameras and the inverse kinematics. We added our own learned walking policies as a demonstration. Note that the stand-up routine is only supported in the simulation right now, as we have no own learned policy right now and do not want to risk damages to the real robots.